Using DisplayLink with Ubuntu 21.04 (“Hirsute Hippo”)

The DisplayLink installer for Ubuntu currently being distributed by the folks at DisplayLink.com is incompatible with Ubuntu 21.04. I’ve made some minor changes to make it work. You can download my modified version here.

To use it:

1. Download the file at the link above.
2. Unpack it with tar xf displaylink-5.3.1.34-hirsuite.tar.gz, which will create a directory called displaylink-5.3.1.34-hirsute.
3. Cd into that directory and run sudo ./displaylink-installer.sh install.

This version contains the following changes from the official distribution:

1. It displays a warning telling you that it’s an unofficial version and what is different in it.
2. It uses the EVDI kernel module shipped by Ubuntu rather than the one in the installer, since that one won’t compile on Ubuntu 21.04.
3. It contains a workaround for an apparent bug in udev in Ubuntu 21.04 (see here for details about the bug).

Feel free to email me at [email protected] with questions about using this modified installer on Ubuntu 21.04. Please don’t email me with DisplayLink that aren’t about using this modified installer on Ubuntu 21.04.

P.S. For the paranoid among you, here is how you can confirm that the changes enumerated above are the only ones in my modified installer:

1. Download and unpack my installer as described above.
2. Download the official Ubuntu installer from DisplayLink.com. That will give you a file whose name ends in “.zip”.
3. Unzip that file, which will give you a file whose name ends in “.run”.
4. Run sh displaylink-driver-5.3.1.34.run --noexec --keep --target orig. That will create a directory called orig containing the official installer’s contents.
5. Run diff -r orig path/displaylink-5.3.1.34-hirsute, where path is the directory you unpacked my tar file in.